It was almost like a flash back to the days of Mets closer Armando Benitez, going into the ninth with a solid lead, blowing it and then watching the other team win. Thats exactly what happend at TD garden, the isles went into the ninth (3rd period) and they could not close the game. To say fans and players are dissapointed would be an understatement. They are pissed, as they should be.

The Islanders entered the ice clearly the underdog, but they came out ready to play. Out shooting and out playing the bruins through out the first. By the end of the first the Isles had out shot the "big bad" bruins 16 to 7, but the Isles went into the locker room down a man after getting called for interference.

The Islanders came back out the same way they did in the first, fast and hard. Killing the Boston power play impressively. It was the second period that the Isles opened up their scoring spree. Following a hooking call on Andrew Ference at 2:27, the Islanders capitalized as the power play was winding down. John sim skated to the front off the net and knocked a rebound shot off the cross bar and into the net giving the Islanders the first goal and the lead. Later at 12:43 it would Radik Martinek who would bury a hard wrist shot making it 2 zip islanders. Getting the assists were Mark Streit and none other than the savior himself, John Tavares (duh duh duh duh duh). Well just 1:91 later it would be number 91 to score a goal of his own on a hard shot that beat Rask. Tavares's abilty to find an opening and bury a shot is just another example of why he went number one. Oh and he continues his point streak, 5 points in 3 games (cue John Tavares chant here).

So going into the third the Islanders had all the momentum in the world. They continued to pull out all the stops on the lifeless bruins. That when things started to quickly turn, as the period whinded down the sleeping bears abruptly woke up and decided to join the game. At 11:59 Marc Savard snaped a shot past Roloson blowing what would have been Roloson's first shut out as an Isles. After that goal, the Islanders switched into panic mode alowing the dangerouse Bruins to strike again. At 15:35 Byron Bitz scored afte the puck deflected in off of Andy Sutton's skate make it 3-2 Islanders and making fans and players sweat even more. Then at 17:26 the unthinkable happend, Matt Hunwick got a choper that went over Roloson and into the net tieing the game at three.

The overtime period resulted no goals force a shoot out. Wheeler (Boston) and Schremp (NYI) both scored on their shots, but it would Savard, Bergeron and Rask who would seal the deal. Savard and Bergeron beat Roloson and Rask stoped both Islander shots giving the Bruins the comeback win.

While for 50 plus minutes the Islanders played outstanding hockey, killing penelties, capitalizing on scoring chances and playing gre celebrity gossip
at defense all mixed in with outstanding goaltending by Roloson gave fans hope for a win that they had in the bag. The concerning part still lies in closing games, after Savard's first goal the young Islanders immediatly went into panic mode and the cool and collected mentality went right out the window along with the sure win. Also a question that now needs to be adressed, why is Dwayne Roloson is outstanding for 3 periods and overtime but is compleatly useless during shootouts. Honestly, we could have Joey Mac sitting goal and get these results. The bottom line is the Islanders need to win monday afternoon at the Coliseum vs the Kings. These one point OT/Shootout losses need to stop, especially when the Islanders play great hockey and then blow it because they panic. Scott Gordon needs to adress this issue and now needs to rectify the situation with Roly and his disappearing skills when it comes to shootouts.

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